Sunday, April 30, 2017

Random Encounters by Terrain - Forest/Jungle

The second "d100 encounter by terrain type" table in my series, this time for forests and jungles. You saw the one for plains and grasslands, right? There are MANY more to come, but these things are great beasts, and I have this self-destructive tendency to make every entry another table! Related to this is also my wildlife overview and super fun image dump post, check that out too if you're into prehistoric megafauna.

Forest / Jungle - 33%/day

01-02 Webbird Flock - usually detected by their sunlight-blocking webbing before they are seen. Webbirds are an environment transforming species that turn normal forest and jungle areas into lightless cave-like spaces that encourage different plant growth. They have plump, hairy bodies and ragged, hairy moth wings. Their fist-sized heads have small, dull, black eyes, a dozen feathery forward and backward curling antennae, and a cluster of jointed tiny hooks for a mouth. Webbirds will attempt to lay grubs in warm-blooded M+ sized creatures. If the creature is wounded, they may land on the wound and lay eggs, if not they will land and bite for 1 dmg and lay eggs next round.

03-04 Coelophysis Pack - 3' high furry/feathery therapod scavengers.

05-06 Primates (1d6)1. Feenees - panda patterned lemurs, if unmolested they may follow the PCs and alert them to danger, or lead them to fruit, edible plants and clean water. 2. Darrenhaust's Marmoset - tiny leonine grey monkeys, seemingly fearful and shy, will attempt to steal anything small enough in a moment of inattention, preferably objects that are bright colored, shiny, or have a strong smell. 3. Hounahoun - a simian sage, attended by animal-shaped nature spirits. Exceptionally wise and exceptionally bored, only somewhat kind. 4. Black-bellied Slingers - large, aggressively territorial monkeys, create a riotous din and pelt intruders with sticks, stones, fruits, and feces, will not fight unless cornered. 5. Snatchers - carnivorous apes, attempt to stealthily drag a single victim into the canopy to be devoured. 6. Grand Apes - giant blue gorillas, intelligent and generally peaceful, if taciturn and indolent.

09-10 Wood Wyrm (Green/Thicket Dragon) - exceptionally large, wingless dragon
with massive forelimbs. Juveniles and younger are climbers, adults
begin to grow a grove of trees and other plants upon their backs,
ancient wyrms are an ecosystem unto themselves. Green dragon breath is a
pollen or spore that puts breathing creatures to sleep and outright
kills the weakest ones. Not particularly intelligent for dragons, sleep
most of their lives, and swallow their favorite treasure.

11-12 Weird Bugs (1d4)1. Drag Flies - blue-lit fireflies attracted to warm blooded creatures. Do no harm, but their presence attracts sight-based predators. 2. Carapace Ticks - can be as large as a dinner plate, obviously drain blood, but in numbers they improve their host's AC, and may provoke an adrenaline surge if host is critically injured. 3. Quest Moth - hypnotic wing patterns geas intelligent creatures into "questing" for the moth's inaccessible orchid, and defending the insect from attack. 4. Quiet Cricket - a large cricket that produces a 20' globe of silence when it "sings".

17-18 Hokopojo Troop - a troop of monkeys inhabited by the dark jungle spirits called Hokopojo. They are brightly colored, walk on their hands with their feet and tails in the air, and have upside down heads. While walking on their hands, their hideous, leering faces are right side up. They possess many magical tricks, and groups of them may stack themselves into living totem poles to become a greater dark spirit.

19-20 Vaath - two sets of long multi-jointed moving legs, two sets of short manipulating arms on a long, lithe body. The entirety of its arrow shaped, four-eyed head opens sideways into a needle-toothed mouth, filthy with deadly poison. Inside the head is a 10' extensible tendril/tongue, capped with a razor edged scoop about 1.5" across, which it uses to burrow through its prey's body into its head, to lay a single egg.

35-36 Sonihadrosaur (pair/herd) - mid-sized (for hadrosaurs) duck-billed dinosaurs with an elaborate fluted crest on their heads. Adults inflate their resonating crests to release a Sonic Honk in a 100' cone every few rounds. Fiercely protective of non-sonic young and nesting sites. Can be subdued by "banding” the crest, binding it with a leather belt or metal band.

39-40 Face Eater (Shapeshifter Spirit) - a dark jungle spirit that robs the civilized of their individuality, and preys on the relationships between them. The Face Eater attacks in the dark, attempting to extinguish light sources, or lure its chosen victim away from them. It naturally appears as a wet, hairy, black humanoid shape, about 6’ tall, its head is just a mouth full of huge blunted teeth. It will eat a person’s face, then masquerade as a perfect copy of them.

49-50 Mutant Troll Pack - slightly undersized trolls that mutate as they regenerate. Already mutated to climb at 3/4 walking speed. During regeneration of massive damage they can fuse together into larger abominations or break into smaller, independent, ruined parts.

57-58 Suitable Nature Spirit (1d4) 1. Predator Spirit - a possessing spirit that fills a creature with the urges to hunt, to kill, and to become a master of territory. 2. New One - a newborn spirit generated in an area of concentrated life. Living potential, prized by the lawful wizards as a component in permanent magical items and high-level spells, it is a crime against nature to imprison one. 3. Ea'ea - an instilling spirit of growth and energy. Can transform any living thing into a force to be reckoned with, at a cost. 4. Waiwie "Tilted Scale" (Chaos Spirit) - from a distance a glowing dragonfly, closer just branching luminous nerves. A spirit that takes/erases elements of law and society from an individual and replaces them with natural elements (Example: the Waiwei steals your money and replaces it with meat or seeds, or maybe erases the Fasinaa language from your mind and replaces it with the tongue of flowers or birds).
59-60 Coatl - the great feathered serpent, appears from nowhere and assumes any size or form. A true ally, a cunning guardian, the arbiter of your unworthy spirit.

65-66 Vegetable Basilisk - physically similar to a true basilisk at a quarter of the size. Somewhat slow, but well camouflaged, and a good climber. Turns victims to wood, which it will save to later consume.

79-80 Ettercap - soft-bodied, humanoid arachnid people. Ettercaps are the much more numerous males of an unnamed species, and Aranea are the females. Unmolested by, and may domesticate webbirds, found in the same areas.

81-82 Aranea - sorcerous, shape-shifting, spider women.

83-84 Naga - the “oldest masters”, they are selfish, secretive, and suspicious. They can be civilized folk, cold-blooded killers, slave takers, or enigmatic guardians, depending on the day. The Naga have their own small city-temples, but they are not fond of each other's company.

89-90 Jungle Wraith - the mad, eternally frustrated spirit of a traveler, killed in but not native to the jungle, robbed of its afterlife by the trickery of dark nature spirits. They can be fixed, but they can not help.